


i'm tired & i want to go to bed

by SafelyCapricious



Series: asleep [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different Framework Universe (Marvel), F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-31 00:36:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12120723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/pseuds/SafelyCapricious
Summary: Sliding into the framework is uncomfortable – and not just because Daisy knows a robot with delusions of grandeur is running it. It is uncomfortably real – like a nightmare she’s accidentally woken up into.





	i'm tired & i want to go to bed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jdphoenix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdphoenix/gifts).



> Still a birthday present for the amazing [JD](http://archiveofourown.org/users/jdphoenix)! ~~Still not yet her birthday.~~
> 
> This is a bit from Daisy's POV. You can expect Coulson, Elena and maybe someone else, if I can manage it. Please do read the first part of this series and please let me know what you thought! Thanks.

Sliding into the framework is uncomfortable – and not just because Daisy knows a robot with delusions of grandeur is running it. It is uncomfortably real – like a nightmare she’s accidentally woken up into.  
  
Seeing pictures of herself with _Ward_ in her house definitely throw it into nightmare territory, but what really cinches it is when she finds out she works for _Hydra_. That everyone works for Hydra.  
  
Well, everyone she can find.  
  
She’s able to do a little bit of searching in the database before she has to go round up inhumans because this world is a terrible place, and Simmons has apparently gone rogue. Or…something.  
  
Daisy wants to think that this psycho computer program version of Simmons did, actually, realize the evil that Hydra was and rebel against it, but she’s terrified that something else happened and her friend is dead.  
  
She’s just trying to see if she can track down Coulson when Ward comes to find her, sees what she’s doing, and freaks out.  
  
Well, that might be overstating it, because all that happens is that his eyes widen a little bit and he reaches over her to erase her browser history, shoots her a look that she can’t read and then gives her a down right chaste peck on the lips and tells her it’s time for them to go.  
  
Which, whatever. She kind of has to or she’ll give away the game, but she’s not exactly happy about it.  
  
It’s not until later, when they’re back at her apartment – and she really wishes she knew what to say to make him not come back with her but it’s clearly something they agreed upon before and ugh she really needs to not rock the boat here – that he even brings it up, casually.  
  
“Why are you looking up Simmons on the work computers?” he asks as he prepares the salad for dinner as she tries to decide if she can knock him out and figure out where everyone else is before he tracks her down.  
  
“Hm?” is all she can manage in response, because she is flying uncomfortably blind here.  
  
“You know the others can track that,” he says, and her heart soars for a moment because maybe – maybe – she does know Simmons in this world and is sincerely looking for her and – “and if they figure out you’ve got another lead on that traitor they’ll be following us all the time again in the hopes they can get there first.”  
  
_Fuck_.  
  
“Sorry,” she says, with a shrug, head almost on the table as she slouches more, “wasn’t thinking I guess.”  
  
He’d quiet – far too quiet – and when she looks up he’s staring at her with a slight frown but then it’s gone and he’s giving her one of those wide smiles that would almost make him look sweet except she knows exactly who he is. An awful asshole. “Okay,” he says, and then mentions something else she has no bases of knowing and she has to keep playing along and shit she needs to knock him out or something STAT.  
  
She doesn’t. She half talks herself into it a dozen more times, but she’s worried about setting off AIDA if she does – somehow she’d have to know, right? – and she doesn’t know where everyone is yet, to risk it. Besides, this Ward is in love with her and that makes him pretty easy to manipulate, or, at least, it should.  
  
Plus he doesn’t try to make a move that night – which is honestly surprising to her and she is completely set to knock him out if he sticks his hand down her night pants or something but he doesn’t, just gives her a forehead kiss and rolls over and goes to sleep and look, Daisy wasn’t expecting romance here, but she did always get the impression that Ward would be kinda doting if he was in a relationship.  
  
He seemed that way with Agent 33, at least, before she died. (Before she and Bobbi killed each other, but Daisy doesn't like to think about that whole situation much, if she can help it - Lance had only just started to recover when this whole thing started to go down and she's terrified of where she's going to find him, here.)   
  
Whatever, she’s glad the romance is dead because she was definitely gonna knock him out if he did try anything and now she can keep using him as a cover.  
  
It turns out that using him as a cover is maybe not the best idea. Because he is on her like white on rice and it makes it really hard to secretly look for people that she wants to rescue from this hell hole.  
  
She’s toying with the idea of knocking him out, again, when they’re making dinner – again! – when she realizes what’s going on.  
  
“Holy shit,” she breathes, because it hits her out of the blue but it’s gotta be true, “you’re not in love with me.”  
  
He stills, where he’s chopping vegetables, and she worries for a minute that she broke the fucking matrix, but then he’s turning and looking at her with a frown and she’s half expecting him to deny it – but for all of him wanting her to move in with him it’s so fucking obvious – but instead he just tilts his head slightly and after an uncomfortable moment of silence says, “You’re not my Skye, are you?”  
  
“Oh hell,” she says, and turns to – she’s not entirely sure, run or grab a lamp to hit him with or – but he’s got her locked in place before she can do that, his arms forming bands so she can’t even struggle and he’s carrying her, effortlessly, into the bathroom and if she dies in the matrix she is going to haunt the hell out of _everyone_.  
  
“Who are you?” he demands, more than asks, once he’s carried her into the shower and turned it on, but he still hasn’t released her.  
  
“I’m Skye!” Daisy hisses, trying to kick back at him.  
  
“No,” he says, “you’re not. So who are you and what have you done with her?”  
  
“Why do you care,” she demands back, “you’re not in love with me!”  
  
“I do love Skye,” he says, and she could almost believe it if not for the fact that he has not tried to bang her _once_ since she got there, “but I don’t know who you are.”  
  
“I am Skye,” she tries again, because she’s apparently been relying far too much on her powers and she is not having any luck breaking his hold without them, “I’m the _real_ Skye – and I just want to get my friends and get out of here and –“  
  
He drops her abruptly and she immediately slips in the wet tile of the tub and goes down, falling directly into the spray and sputtering as she pops back up and he’s _smiling_ at her.  
  
“Oh,” he says, “I was wondering when you’d get here.”  
  
And she’s left gaping at him as he winks and steps out of the tub.  
  
Four hours later she’s _still_ gaping at him as he helps her down the last of the really sketchy staircase into SHIELD. He still hasn't explained  _anything_ and she's still flying blind but she's not going to die and just the act of going into SHIELD makes her massively more comfortable, if also kind of amused.  
  
Because of course Grant Ward would be a double agent in this world too – doesn’t that just figure?  
  
He leads her inside and there’s Mace – who she has to admit is not her highest priority but damn it’s still good to see a real person in all this – and Simmons!  
  
Simmons is alive! And here! And Daisy is hugging her within an inch of her life in an instant, and at first Simmons is stiff but then she relaxes and hugs her back and –  
  
“Oh my god, it’s so good to see you,” Daisy says, before Ward is there, gently separating them and shooting Simmons a concerned look and –  
  
“Holy shit,” Daisy breathes again, because Ward is definitely not _in_ love with _her_ and suddenly how he was hovering after he found her researching Simmons, but still not trying to sleep with her makes a world of sense and – oh man, she really hopes this doesn’t carry over into the real world for Simmons.  
  
Not from Ward, obviously, there’s no way AIDA got her hands on the real thing there, but just from Simmons. Because Simmons is giving _him_ an equally soft look and – “Nope, nope, nope, nope,” Daisy says and grabs Simmons’ by the shoulders and looks her square in the eye and says, “you do not want him.”  
  
And Simmons goes pale and jerks and says, “No! No, of course – I know that you two are – I would never – and –“  
  
Ward curls a hand around the back of Simmons’ neck and presses a kiss to her temple and smirks at Daisy and, well, she is reluctantly impressed that AIDA managed to make him as much of a jerk here as he is in real life. “We aren’t together, anymore,” he says, still into Simmons’ skin, and Daisy really regrets breaking up with him on the way over if this is the thanks she’s gonna get for it.  
  
Simmons is staring at her and then looking up at him and ugh, that’s just gross. She wants to erase the image of Simmons giving Ward heart eyes from her entire existence. “Oh,” she says, and there’s so much _hope_ in that one word that it would break Daisy’s heart if she wasn’t going to drag Simmons back to the real world before she can worry about any of this long term anyways.  
  
“Anyways,” Ward says, finally jerking his gaze from where he’d been staring at Simmons, equally star struck, “ _Skye_ has some people she wants to find, to help the cause, so let me just show her to the command center and then I can help you with that thing.”  
  
“Oh,” Simmons says, blushing up a storm, “okay.”  
  
“Don’t,” Daisy says, as soon as Simmons has walked away.  
  
Ward arches an eyebrow, smirks, but doesn’t answer. Instead he just starts walking and she has to hurry to keep up.  
   
“I mean it, Ward, don’t you dare!”  
  
Daisy has to get them all home sooner, rather than later, least that turn into an actual thing. It’s too late for her to take one for the team by staying with Ward – and the fact that breaking up with him was apparently the wrong thing to do really does make this a nightmare.

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna yell at me on tumblr about my weird obsession with the em dash, or, you know, something about the characters, you can find me [here](http://capriciouswrites.tumblr.com/)


End file.
